Federal judge who rules on immigration issues arrested for human smuggling

A licensed Texas attorney and federally-appointed immigration magistrate was taken into custody for allegedly smuggling migrants and resisting arrest on Saturday.

According to Galveston County Constable Jimmy Fullen, Timothy Daniel Japhet was arrested and charged for the "smuggling of a human and resisting arrest" in Kinney County, TX. Fullen made the announcement on his Facebook page, along with pictures of Japhet and the four men he was accused of smuggling across the US-Mexico border.

According to the Texas Bar website, Japhet is listed as still "eligible to practice," and has been licensed since 2003. He primarily practices out of Corpus Christi and his specialties include business, environmental, government/administrative, and energy resource law. Immigration law is not listed as one of his practices. He graduated from South Texas College of Law in 1998.

Japhet was also involved in some controversy in 2020, when in the midst of the chaos surrounding the death of George Floyd while being held down by Minneapolis police officers, he made the shocking claim that the man who was identified as Floyd actually died three years prior, and he knew this because he was his lawyer.

"The name of the man they are using who died? He died here in Corpus Christi three years ago?," said Japhet in a Facebook post, sparking conspiracy theories. "He did play for Texas A&I and he did live on the streets here and he did die here. However he didn’t die in Minnesota."

"So what I’m telling you is that the man they claim who died in Minneapolis at the hands of the police did not die there......that man died in Corpus Christi, TX in Christus Spohn Memorial ICU with me as his Guardian Ad Litem and he is buried at the paupers cemetery in Flour Bluff?."

Japhet even gave an interview, where he reiterated his claims of the real George Floyd dying long before Minneaoplis were ever involved.